TRT World which is an English language news channel from Turkish state broadcaster TRT, is expected to officially launch on Astra at 19.2° East and om Eutelsat Hotbird at 13.0° East.
The channel is based in Istanbul, with studios in London and Washington, and is the latest state-sponsored international news channel to launch in recent years.

The channel appears to be launching across Europe with a free-to-air HD transmission taking place on two main satellites positions covering Europe. The channel is being uplinked on Globecast-operated transponder capacity.

TRT World HD was broadcasting free-to-air on the Eutelsat Hotbird satellite on the same HD transponder carrying Euronews HD. The channel was also available at the same time on Astra.

Initial transmissions on both satellites have currently ceased by the evening, though are understood to be part of the Turkish broadcaster’s plans to make TRT World more widely available to satellite viewers across Europe.

TRT World is seen as a way of promoting the official Government line on events to international audiences as a counter-balance to “biased” foreign broadcasters.